1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector terminal, and more particularly to a terminal having a twisted portion to reduce the space required for accommodating such a terminal.
2. Background of the Invention
It is known to form an electrical connector terminal for a socket connector by stamping and bending in a desired manner to obtain various configurations. For those terminals having an upwardly projecting arm oriented at an angle relative to a general main plane of the base portion of a contact blank, different designs have been proposed as can be seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,652,329; 6,887,114; 6,929,483; and 6,955,572. These prior designs all exhibit a structural feature that one planar portion of the terminal where the projecting arm is formed is physically connected to another planar portion, usually the base portion of the terminal by a curved section or along a bending line. The two planar portions together with the bending line joining the two portions inevitably increase an overall horizontal dimension of the terminal.
To reduce the above-mentioned horizontal dimension of a terminal, measured in a direction perpendicular to the base portion thereof, while obviating plastic deformation of the projecting arm and/or increase in connection resistance, a design is proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,976,888 by making the curved section angled 180 degrees.
On the other hand, twisting a portion of a terminal in consideration of its force/displacement response during mating with another terminal is well known in this art. For example, it is known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,099,326 to twist a lower portion of a terminal which is further soldered to a printed circuit board so that a horizontal displacement of the lower soldered portion can be conditioned. Also, it is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,035,632 to twist an upper portion of a terminal that then engages from a sideward direction with an inserted card edge.
However, none of the art shows or suggests a terminal which has an upper portion twisted in order to reduce its horizontal dimension.